Adaptive control for NOx removal in non-thermal plasma processing

This paper presents results on NO, removal using a dielectric packed-bed plasma reactor where the reactor energy is varied in real time to optimise NO chi removal. An automated system has been developed using computer-control with an industry standard software package, a multifunction DAQ card, on-line fast FTIR spectroscopy and adaptive PID algorithms. The automatic control system has demonstrated real-time control of plasma conditions which minimises the input energy for NO conversion for a range of input NO concentrations. The dependence of [NO](out) on deposited energy density has been used to create a multidimensional response surface for NO destruction. This, in turn, has been used to create a fully validated process control model of the entire reactor-FTIR-adaptive PID system.